Kevin's template for gotests

This is the template set that I use to generate tests for gotests (forked here). It is based on testify and my opinions and preferences.

If you disagree with my opinions and preferences, nothing is forcing you to use this. 😸

Features

• For methods, omits the receiver object and its fields. I've generally found that the receiver gets initialized by custom code most of the time (often with additional parameters e.g. to specify mocks). I rarely if ever passed in a receiver with parameters in the table driven test parameters...

• Does not use Args but instead promotes each parameter as a capitalized, first-class member of the testcase struct. I find this to be more readable, especially for functions that (hopefully) don't have a super long list of parameters!

• Has excellent support for the following types of functions/methods:

  • Return only an error -- place the expected error string in the ExpectedError field and use assert.EqualError.
  • Return only one value -- place the expected result in the ExpectedResult field and use assert.Equal.
  • Return one value and an error -- the ExpectedError and ExpectedResult fields are used, and the result is checked only if an error has not occurred.

• Generates code that compiles, albeit some of it commented-out, for cases it doesn't handle well.

Maturity

This project is maintained only as I need capabilities for personal or professional tasks. I share this in hopes it may be useful, but this is not being operated or supported as a project intended for others to use and contribute to at this point.

Installation

You need to use my fork of gotests because I've made some changes:

• Added sprig template functions
• Incorporated PR#80 - gotests generate test names with MixedCaps (updated branch to resolve merge conflicts as of August 2020 and get tests to pass)
• Latest unreleased gotests features, specifically the -parallel flag
• Keeping dependencies up-to-date (as of January 2023) since the upstream repository has gone dormant

Here's how to install my fork of gotests (warning - may replace your stock copy, so only do this if you know what you're doing):

1. git clone https://github.com/kpaulisse/gotests.git
2. cd gotests
3. go install ./...

This should create gotests in your go/bin directory. Make sure that which gotests finds this (adjust your PATH if not).

You'll then clone this repository somewhere that you want to store templates.

1. cd /path/to/templates
2. git clone git@github.com:kpaulisse/gotests-template.git kpaulisse-gotests-template

Now, configure your editor (here's an example for vscode):

Go: Generate Tests Flags

• Add Item: -template_dir=/path/to/templates/kpaulisse-gotests-template/templates
• Add Item: -parallel (assuming you want this)

Limitations

• Requires my fork of gotests (see Installation)
• Lacks a test suite
• Doesn't create examples for non-string types (instead comments these out)
• Doesn't strip build flag comments from test files (it just copies all header comments as-is)